Recently, there has been a minor thread on the HOB/D list concerning B033, specifically its repeal or nullification. Some of the posts are down right arrogant. A comment from a delegate last night so angered me that I was unable to sleep.One must wonder about the logic behind "leave B033 alone / don't revisit it / my God, don't dare ask me to apologize for it" posts. What GC06 did was egregiously and deeply hurtful a large percentage of the most active communicants of this Church But even worse is the apparent lack of remorse over the intentional wound.
Posts by some delegates appear to turn the perpetrators into the victims -
Believe me, I agonized over voting to hurt my GLBT brothers and sisters; poor me. But I went ahead and did what I knew was the wrong thing, and I have no intention of apologizing for voting the way I did.
I heard that same logic countless times from my father just before his belt met the seat of my pants: "Believe me, this hurts me more than it hurts you."
It is faulty logic at best, and is, in reality simply an attempt to justify the injury and to absolve the perpetrator(s) of any need of remorse. However, a perpetrator is a perpetrator no matter what the logic.
This church has rightly apologized to the American Indians and blacks for the hurt it caused by word and deed, commission and omission.
To my knowledge, this church passed no legislation proscribing the rights of Indians and Blacks in the egregious manner it treated the GLBT members in 2006.
Why is a formal apology to the former the "right thing to do" while at the same time the willful proscriptions and intentional bigotry against the latter needs no apology whatsoever? Will the GLBT community have to wait two hundred years before the delegates can find the spine to offer an apology?
No one is asking for an apology that says "I was flat our wrong." The delegates made the decision they thought was best, at that time, given the options available to them. In retrospect it is evident that the decision was doomed from the start. But, the did not realize it at the time.
What they must do , however, is to apologize for the hurt that decision has caused. To do less is sheer arrogance.
I realize that not all delegates feel the same way, and some are advocating for an apology. Thank God for such righteous delegates.
We cannot look to our Bishops as a House to do the right thing. They are still basking in the sunset of Tea with the Queen. They betrayed the GLBT community not once, but twice, and many bishops did so a third time. Sadly, my own bishop is in that last category.
The members of this church should, however, be able to count on the Deputies to do the honourable thing. Deputies have a custodial responsibility over the church and its membership.
As a communicant member in good standing of this church, I respectfully call upon the HOD to repudiate B003 and apologize to the GLBT community.
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